Date: 1915-04-22
Source: Lenin Collection, vol. 27
Pages: 278-279

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[ARTICLES BY HUGO BÖTTGER IN "DER TAG"]

"Der Tag," 1915 No. 93 (Edition A), 22 April 1915.

Article: "Die freien Gewerkschaften u[nd] die Regierung" by
Dr. Hugo Böttger, Member of the Reichstag.

The author begins with the fact that General Director Bergwerks-
gesellschaft (in Gelsenkirchen) Kirdorf censures Minister
Delbrück (Minister of the Interior) for maintaining "close contact with the leaders of the trade unions."

This is supposedly dangerous—the workers will supposedly become more restless.

The author objects that there is supposedly no harm in this, that supposedly even in the trenches workers and employers stand together, that supposedly "if they (= the free trade unions = Social Democrats) have been called upon in the Ministry of the Interior to participate in work on certain labor and general national questions, then this is both recognition and obligation, and throughout the entire period of the war they must *renounce* certain points of the Social Democratic program that fall within the sphere of the International, and like all other sections of the people fulfill their duty and stand up for the fatherland"...

His article in No. 82 (9 April), "Ausbau unserer Politik," where among other things we read:

"It is peculiar that even in Social Democratic discussions the opinion stands out clearly against the background of Marxist mode of analysis, that one must now reckon with the further development of imperialism, the development of large independent world empires, independent as much as possible from external [influences]. Some rise up in opposition to this, others seek to weave the development of imperialism into the course of development of socialism, and surely there can be no doubt which of the two tendencies is the more intelligent and will have the greatest prospect of success"...